Radio Officers Amateur Radio Society
ROARS MISSION STATEMENT
- To encourage Radio Officers to use their professional skills to benefit the worldwide radio amateur community
- To promote the use of professional skills in radio amateur-led communications during times of national disaster and emergency
- To preserve and extend the use of a professional standard of morse code in the radio amateur fraternity
- To advise and, where practical, assist Radio Officers in the installation of radio amateur stations and antennae
- To provide and manage on-air net forums for Radio Officers to communicate directly using radio amateur facilities
- To assist Radio Officers in gaining a radio amateur licence if required
Amateur Radio – A National Asset
- Amateur Radio in the United Kingdom performs the following National and International functions:
- It provides a source of interest and expertise which encourages and supports careers in electronics industries and services.
- Amateur Radio operates and maintains national and international emergency communications networks for disaster relief – viz. Mexican and Californian earthquakes, Lockerbie air crash, rescue of ocean going yachtsmen, New York’s September 11th, East Anglia Floods, Balkans uprisings and civil wars, Tsunami aftermath. (The basic design of amateur radio equipment enables it to be operated from minimal supplies e.g. car batteries, if the national grid is put out of action.) Its application to assist in countering the effects of a major terrorist attack should be recognised.
- Amateur radio provides a pool of telecommunications, computer and electronics expertise which can be quickly drawn upon in times of war.
- The Amateur Radio fraternity bridges cultural, political and ethnic boundaries. Its various modes of operation enable language barriers to be overcome.
- Amateur radio participants provide one of the World’s largest R&D facilities (unpaid) which contributes to the many fields of communications viz. propagation studies, new modes of communication such as HF SSB and meteor scatter, satellite communications, digital modes and related systems.
- Some 60,000 amateurs are licensed in the U.K. (131 ROA Members have amateur callsigns). Hundreds of thousands embrace the hobby from every country on the Planet. The USA, Rest of Europe, Russia and Japan are leading proponents.